Is your organization ready for the crowd economy? The crowd economy is a dynamic ecosystem of productive people who participate through a platform with a purpose to achieve mutually beneficial goals.

As a first step towards a transition to a crowd – focussed organization, it helps to understand what makes up the crowd economy.

1. The people. The crowd economy is empowering, inclusive, disruptive and human centric.

Human-centric values need to be embedded in applications geared towards the crowd economy where the community is the starting point. The crowd economy or collective action is not about mob behavior but very targeted cooperative solutions that help communities better their lives. People-powered platforms are forging these interconnections between users that are breaking down the barriers between creators, producers and end users. By empowering people, organizations are finding new, previously unimagined pathways and solutions to complex problems.

The crowd economy embodies a culture of shared value creation and social responsibility that distinguishes itself from the traditional one-dimensional thinking and practices of the old economy. People driven initiatives often embody a larger mission to create solutions that work for, and, with all stakeholders. There is more than one channel of communication and the notion that everyone can further his or her purpose is life changing.

3. The platform. Crowds need a medium to interact and produce results.

This pillar of the crowd economy has manifested in the form of technology, connectivity and mobile networks. Soon the Internet of Things will contribute to this medium, amplifying human interactions with powerful data. Platforms like Airbnb and Uber have become synonymous with peer marketplaces and have led to new business paradigms taking shape.

4. The participation. Co-creation and participation are emphasized in the crowd economy and communities take an active stake in crafting positive futures.

The power of participation to accelerate innovation is best seen through crowdfunding, that has enabled early ideas get a jumpstart. Crowd verdict is critical to validate business plans and ideas and working with them only bring financial support but also value product input and iteration.

Digital crowd applications for civic activities, disaster relief and humanitarian work are creating widespread impact. Helping and participation comes naturally to us and the networked web has fitted this mindset with wings.

At CSW², we help change leaders take the first step to create organizational transformations that encompass leadership, communications, structure, innovation pathways to capitalize on the crowd & connected new economy.